For a Moment

Point Claire, Quebec: King’s Road Press, 2009, 16 pages, 28 poems. ISBN 978-1-895557-20-6.

 

This book is the eighteenth title in Marco Fraticelli’s Hexagram series from King’s Road Press. All books are short, but the series represents a who’s who of haiku, so it’s a fine series to be a part of. Each book features a different hexagram on the cover. Mine is #27, “nourishment,” about which the I Ching says “Nature nourishes all people. The wise man uses words carefully in harmony with what is right. He only offers guidance that he knows will help his followers.” Here are a few of the poems from the book, as selected by editor Marco Fraticelli (See PDF version on the Haiku Foundation website, which says “Welch is one of the stalwarts of American haiku. His works are almost always sharp, concrete renditions of original moments, and this collection is a fine example of his skillful work.”). All poems have been previously published in various journals. 

 

 

dwindling fire—

our conversation shifts

to death

 

 

spring cleaning—

dust in the shape

of unanswered mail

 

 

spring breeze—

      flowers

            in the folds of your skirt

 

 

garden supply store . . .

     each sundial

     tells a different time

 

 

summer vacation—

our rhubarb stalks

tipped with sugar

 

 

summer heat
      two squirrels
            meet on a wire

 

 

floating down the stream

         petals

                    swept

from the summer-house deck

 

 

a rest by the stream—

burrs on the tongue

of my tennis shoe

 

 

falling rose petals . . .

the tattoo

on the pallbearer’s arm

 

 

grey sky—

the dog’s water dish

iced over

 

 

December dawn—

the shape of the flower bed

under fresh snow

 

 

home for Christmas . . .

my childhood desk drawer                                                                                                  +       +

empty

 

 

Christmas Eve—

bits of a price sticker

stuck to my finger

 

 

a swirl of snow—

she lifts her hair

out of her sweater

 

 

a perfect snowflake

for a moment

on your tongue